by Iza del Carmen, MomAuthority.com

Writing jobs are often misunderstood.  There are many things out there about writing jobs that are just not true. For instance, many people see writing as difficult.  They think about their high school English classes and remember how much they hated writing then.

The truth is that writing for money is a lot different.  You also get to choose what jobs you want to take, so if you do not like a topic then you do not take the job.

Writing really only requires some basic skills.  You need to be fluent in English and have a good understanding of English grammar.  You also need to be able to use a search engine proficiently.  With these basic skills you can start your career in writing.

There are a few different options for writing jobs.  There are websites that offer paid positions to write for them.  They usually provide suggested topics to write about or you are allowed to write about whatever you want.  Some pay through a straight fee and others give you a commission based upon visits, called impressions, to your website.

Another option is writing for individuals.  There is a huge market for article writing for small businesses.  They use articles to market their business and to help add content to their website, which helps them in the search engine rankings.  Many business owners do not have the time or desire to write their own content so they hire writers.  These are usually low paying jobs, but they also usually result in a steady income.

You can also write for other people who have a writing business.  They do all the marketing and secure clients and you simply get offers on assignments.  These types of jobs are a little more difficult to find then the other types of writing jobs, but they also offer some pay and usually will give you a steady work load.

Article writing is not the only option for contracting work.  You may also be hired to write ebooks, reports and blogs.  There is also paid to post jobs where you get paid to make posts on forums.  It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with a range of different writing types so that you are able to write in any format.  That will help make you more appealing to clients.

There is also the option of writing your own pieces for resale.  You can write ebooks or reports and sell them yourself.  This is a good idea if you have some special knowledge in a certain area of interest.  You want to write something useful and something that people can not find online easily.  Of course you will also have to go about selling your piece.

When you want t apply for a writing job you will need samples of your work.  You should always have samples on hand.  Make sure your samples show you can write about a variety of topics.  You should make sure that your samples are perfect with no mistakes in spelling or grammar.  Most of the time it is your samples that will get you a job.

Pros and cons for writing jobs are listed below.  Remember that these are just really important points that you should consider.  With so many different writing opportunities there are a lot of variables so some of these may not apply to every job you come across.

Pros

- You have total control to take or reject assignments so you write only when you want on topics that want.

- You do not any special equipment accept a computer and internet connection.  You also do not need to have products or maintain an inventory.

- You have many different options, each unique.  You can choose to work with clients directly, sub contract or work with a website.  It is all based on what you prefer.  These options allow you to make your writing business into what you want.

- You have the ability to make as much as you want.  You are paid per piece, so if you want to make more money you can take more work.

- You do not need a quiet space to work in and interruptions are not going to affect so bad.  You can stop and start your writing which makes it easy to fit into any schedule.

Cons

- With writing work you have to meet deadlines most of the time.  If you are not given a specific deadline you have to set your own so you get the work done.

- It cans sometimes be difficult for you to find a writing position.  There is a lot of competition in this industry.  However, there is also a lot of opportunity.  You can not afford to be too picky, especially when you start out or you will not find any work.

- Many of the jobs you will find are low paying.  You should not expect to be a very large amount for a piece.  Most pay structures are by the word.  You will usually find pay rates at .01 to .05 per word.  This means you will be focusing more on getting large volumes of work in order to make good money.  You need to be able to turn out a number of articles an hour in order to make it profitable.

by Iza del Carmen, MomAuthority.com

Affiliate marketing is a home business where you sign up with a company to sell there items for a commission. You also can recruit others to sign up and you will earn money from their sales, too.

Affiliate marketing is a sales position.  You have to sell products and talk to people about becoming an affiliate.  It is not for everyone, but many people have had great success with affiliate marketing.

The process of becoming an affiliate marketer is rather simple.  You start by finding a company that has an affiliate program.  There are affiliate programs in almost every industry so you are not limited.  Choose a company that has products that you like and that you think will sell well.

After you find a company you have to submit some information to sign up.  Many affiliate programs will then send you training information and some even give you a website to use.

After you get established with the company and learn about the affiliate program you can begin to market and recruit.  This is where you will really work.  You have to get people to buy products from you so you make money.  You also have to get people to sign up for the program because this really boosts your income.

Affiliate marketing is very popular, but with so many programs out there in so many different industries it is not difficult to find success.

Now we will look at the pros and cons of affiliate marketing.  Again, some of these may not be a pro or a con for you.  The point here is to give you some things to think about before getting into affiliate marketing.

Pros

- You get to work with an established company.  This means that the name will be familiar to buyers and that you will not have to work to get the products recognized.  People will be familiar with them and willing to buy them.  All the market research has been done so you know you are selling a good product that people will buy.

- It costs nothing to get started.  You do not have to pay to part of a program and you really do not have to spend a dime to get your business going.  You can use the resources given to you by the company to get your business going.

- You are free to work whenever you want.  Your website that you get from the company will take and process orders for you.  Plus your website will also sign up affiliates under you.  All you have to do is the marketing, which may take time in the beginning, but is usually only a small amount of work after that.

- You have chances to boost your income with signing up affiliates.  One of the reasons why affiliate marketing is so popular is that the income potential is huge.  You not only sell products, but you sign up other affiliates and you earn off their sales.  Yu also earn money off their affiliate sign ups.  The income potential is amazing.

Cons

- Most of the work you do will be marketing.  If you are not familiar with internet marketing then you will have to take time to learn about it before you will start to make money.  Your marketing skills need to be very good in order to make a good profit.

- There is a lot of competition among affiliate programs.  It can make it difficult to sign up new affiliates.  You should never neglect your product sales because you may not always find it easy to sign up affiliates and relying on that aspect of the program only will often leave you empty handed.